The PDA deathwatch continues
 It's a bittersweet deathwatch for the geek blogs: With the rise of the hybrid cell phone-PDA, each quarter brings fewer plain old handheld computers. Do kids today even remember the PalmPilot, let alone Apple's Newton? Yesterday saw another nail hammered in the coffin, as TechWeb, among others, broke the news of the latest IDC report showing the 10th consecutive quarterly decline in PDA sales: "The number of handheld devices shipped in the second quarter ended June 30 dropped 26.3 percent from the same period a year ago to 1.4 million units." Still, rumors of extinction may be overstated. Australian tech news site ARNnet.com digs up an expert (apparently the owner of something called the "Organizer King") who says that "although the phones offer a lot of functions, they still don't do all of it very well" -- a fact, he says, that assures an ongoing market for PDAs. Red Herring comes to the same conclusion, drawing from a recent In-Stat survey which shows that "in spite of the growing popularity of smart phones, consumers aren’t yet ready to trade in their laptops and PDAs for a single, do-it-all device." Hey, some still swear by the Rolodex. Of course, perhaps the iPhone will change all that. Photo by YGGG 
CNNMoney.com Comment Policy: CNNMoney.com encourages you to add a comment to this discussion. You may not post any unlawful, threatening, libelous, defamatory, obscene, pornographic or other material that would violate the law. Please note that CNNMoney.com makes reasonable efforts to review all comments prior to posting and CNNMoney.com may edit comments for clarity or to keep out questionable or off-topic material. All comments should be relevant to the post and remain respectful of other authors and commenters. By submitting your comment, you hereby give CNNMoney.com the right, but not the obligation, to post, air, edit, exhibit, telecast, cablecast, webcast, re-use, publish, reproduce, use, license, print, distribute or otherwise use your comment(s) and accompanying personal identifying information via all forms of media now known or hereafter devised, worldwide, in perpetuity. CNNMoney.com Privacy Statement.
|
|
| 
